Johann MacDougall Lamont (; born 11 July 1957) is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014. She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 until her election to the leadership in 2011. In addition to her ministerial and leadership roles, she has been a campaigner on equality issues and violence against women throughout her political career.
Born in Glasgow, Lamont attended Woodside Secondary School and obtained a degree from the University of Glasgow. After studying for teaching qualifications at Jordanhill College, she became a schoolteacher. Active in the Labour Party since she was at university, Lamont served on its Scottish Executive Committee, and chaired it in 1993. With the establishment of a devolved legislature in Scotland, she was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Pollok in 1999. Having been appointed convener of the Scottish Parliament's Social Justice Committee in 2001, she obtained her first ministerial role in a Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition in October 2004 and served until its defeat by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 2007.
Lamont stood for the Scottish Labour leadership following the resignation of Iain Gray in the wake of the party's defeat at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election; its second consecutive defeat. Following a review of how the Labour Party in Scotland would be structured, she became its first overall leader. She stated Labour lost the 2011 election because it had lost direction, and initiated a review of Scottish Labour policy on issues like devolution and the party's commitment to free universal public services. Following the SNP Government's announcement of a referendum on Scottish independence, she was a key figure in the Better Together campaign; a cross-party movement that sought to keep Scotland part of the United Kingdom. She resigned as Scottish Labour leader in October 2014, making the announcement in a Daily Record interview in which she claimed that senior figures within the UK Labour Party had undermined her attempts to reform the Scottish party, and treated it "like a branch office of London". Following a leadership election to replace her, she was succeeded in December 2014 by former Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy.
Lamont's work as Scottish Labour leader won her accolades at the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, for Political Impact of the Year in 2012 and Debater of the Year in 2013. In parliamentary debates, she was perceived by commentators such as The Scotsmans Andrew Whitaker as being an effective opponent to First Minister Alex Salmond, but others, including Richard Seymour of The Guardian, criticised her for clumsiness during television interviews.
Early life and teaching career Johann MacDougall Lamont was born in the Anderston district of Glasgow on 11 July 1957. Her parents, Archie and Effie, were both Gaelic speakers from crofting families on the Inner Hebridean island of Tiree, who met after both had moved to Glasgow. Archie was a carpenter employed by the Scottish ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne, working on the Mallaig to Skye route. He took part in the Seamen's Strike of 1966. The family were Presbyterians, and Lamont's mother was influenced in her faith by the American evangelist Billy Graham. Her first experiences of public speakers was listening to the preachers her mother took her to see as a girl.
Lamont's childhood was divided between Glasgow and her mother's family home on Tiree, where she and her brother David spent their summer holidays. She attended Woodside Secondary School, having declined to take scholarship exams for selective education. Like her parents, she was a Gaelic speaker, but she did not believe she spoke it well enough, and she dropped it at school in favour of French and German. It was also at school that she first developed an interest in politics, once entering a Daily Mirror competition with a politically-themed short story. The tale, whose central character discussed her intention to demand a pay rise and was finally revealed to be the Queen, won Lamont third prize. She studied English and History at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an MA. Joining the Labour Party in 1975, she was active in Glasgow University Labour Club where she was a contemporary of fellow Labour politician Margaret Curran, and was also involved with the women's movement. She trained as a teacher for a year at Jordanhill College, gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, and afterwards joined Rothesay Academy, as a teacher in 1979. She taught at Springburn Academy in Glasgow from 1982 to 1989 and at Castlemilk High School, also in Glasgow, from 1990 to 1999. Lamont taught English and worked with social workers and educational psychologists attempting to tackle instances of school truancy.
Continuing to be active in the Labour Party, Lamont became a prominent campaigner on issues related to social justice, equality and devolution. Although she had voted no in the 1979 referendum that proposed the establishment of a Scottish Assembly, during the 1980s and 1990s she was a representative on the Scottish Constitutional Convention, the body that paved the way for Scottish devolution. Of her 1979 decision, Lamont has said that she "came from the strand on the left which saw the politics of nationalism as a diversion from more central aims [but later] came to see the parliament as a vehicle for democratic change in Scotland." She was a member of the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party, serving as chair in 1993.
MSP for Glasgow Pollok Although a Labour activist for two decades, Lamont had not sought election to the House of Commons during that time, telling a 2014 BBC interview there were few chances for women to be elected to Westminster: "In 1987 Labour sent down 50 MPs and only one of them was a woman." Instead, her decision to seek political office was influenced by the creation of the Scottish Parliament. Speaking to The Herald in 2011, she said, "It is easy to forget what a great opportunity it was for women and I was determined that women would be represented, would have a strong voice." The parliament was established as a result of the 1997 referendum that saw a 74% vote in favour of devolving legislative powers to Scotland. Lamont was first elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Pollok in 1999. She held the seat in 2003, when she faced a strong challenge from the Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan, and then again in 2007 and 2011.
During her maiden speech on 17 May 1999, Lamont was the first MSP to use Gaelic at a sitting of the Parliament. She served on a number of the Parliament's committees during her first term in office, including the Equal Opportunities Committee, the Local Government Committee and the Social Justice Committee. She became convener of the Social Justice Committee in 2001. In 2000 she became the first Labour MSP to rebel against the Labour-led administration when she threatened to lead backbenchers in voting against a planned Scottish Executive attempt to block the Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales Bill, which had been introduced by Sheridan. The move resulted in the withdrawal of the amendment, and a crucial parliamentary vote in favour of the legislation. At a session of First Minister's Questions in 2002, she narrowly avoided becoming the first MSP to be ejected from the parliament after continuing to speak when Presiding Officer David Steel had told her to sit down. Steel felt her supplementary question about youth crime was too long, but the incident led to a heated parliamentary debate, and accusations from Lamont's colleague, Labour's Helen Eadie that the Presiding Officer was not treating male and female MSPs equally, an allegation he rejected.
Frontbench politics
Lamont was appointed convener of the Communities Committee in 2003. In March 2004 the Committee endorsed a bill aimed at tackling antisocial behaviour, which included plans for parenting orders and the electronic tagging of youths under the age of 16. First Minister Jack McConnell made her Deputy Minister for Communities in the Scottish Executive in October 2004. In that post she was responsible for the launch of a radio and television advertising campaign aimed at tackling domestic abuse that aired over Christmas 2005, and she expressed concerns over the level of discrimination faced by travellers and gypsies after the issue was highlighted in a 2005 Scottish Parliament report.
In November 2006, Lamont was appointed Deputy Minister for Justice and oversaw reforms to Scotland's Lower Courts system. She held the post until Labour was defeated at the 2007 election. McConnell appointed her as Labour's spokesperson for Communities and Sport in his post-election frontbench team, a role she retained in the shadow cabinet formed by his successor, Wendy Alexander, in September 2007. Following Alexander's decision to step down as leader of the Labour MSPs in June 2008, and Cathy Jamieson's subsequent resignation as her deputy, Lamont stood against fellow MSP Bill Butler for the position vacated by Jamieson. She was elected as deputy leader in September 2008 with 60.16 per cent of the vote, against 39.82 per cent for Butler. At the same time, Iain Gray was elected to lead the Labour group at Holyrood.
In addition to her deputy leadership role, Lamont was appointed Chief of Staff with special responsibility for Equalities. While in that post she gave her support to Scottish Government plans to introduce a Bill outlawing forced marriage, which was announced in September 2010. In February 2011, she criticised Scottish Conservative MSP and Justice Committee Convener, Bill Aitken after the Sunday Herald quoted him making a controversial statement about a rape victim, and later welcomed his subsequent resignation. As Gray's deputy Lamont also represented Labour at First Minister's Questions in his absence. At a session of First Minister's Questions in October 2009, she raised the issue of the Scottish Futures Trust with Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, asking whether the public body planned to spend any money on improving school infrastructure before the 2011 election.
Leader of the Scottish Labour Party
Leadership election
In the wake of Labour's second defeat at the Scottish Parliament election of May 2011, which saw the Scottish National Party (SNP) form its first majority government, Gray announced his intention to step down as leader of the Labour MSPs later that year. A review chaired by Jim Murphy and Sarah Boyack into the party's structure in Scotland subsequently concluded that the next leader should lead the entire Scottish Labour Party rather than just its MSPs, as previous leaders had. Lamont declared her candidacy for the leadership election in September 2011 and launched her campaign on 7 November at Stirling University. She told delegates that Labour needed to reengage with the electorate if it wanted to govern again: "We must listen and learn, show humility and seek again to talk for and to people's ambitions and concerns. Our real challenge is that we in Labour lost our way, lost our confidence and lost Scotland."